[Loch-Ruadh] Word of the Day, April 15

[Cait O'Hara]

Reluct

To struggle, strive, or rebel against; to show dislike, to revolt at, to offer opposition to, a thing; [1500s-1800s].
-- Sir James Murray’s New English Dictionary

On this date in 1755, the publication of Samuel Johnson’s landmark dictionary was completed.  Eight years earlier, Johnson had presented his plan for this comprehensive lexicon to Lord Chesterfield, to whom he appealed self-efficacy for backing: “I know that the work in which I engage is generally considered as drudgery for the blind, as the proper toil of artless industry, a task that requires neither the light of learning, nor the activity of genius, but may be successfully performed without any higher quality than that of bearing burthens with dull patience and beating the track of the alphabet with sluggish resolution.”  Chesterfield agreed to become Johnson’s patron, but when this aristocrat began claiming more than financial credit for the successful project, Johnson denounced him, saying that he displayed “the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing master.”



---
Never meddle in the affairs of dragons;
For you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
-- Acacia



See Dave Matthews Band live or win a signed guitar
http://r.lycos.com/r/bmgfly_mail_dmb/http://win.ipromotions.com/lycos_020201/splash.asp